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Thousand Oaks shooting: 12 dead including officer, suspect identified

At least 12 people, including an officer, were killed late Wednesday when a gunman opened fire in a packed Southern California bar during its “college night,” leaving the community of Thousand Oaks in shock and in mourning.

“Our hearts are broken,” Adam Housley and Tamera Mowry-Housley said in a statement. “Alaina was an incredible young woman with so much life ahead of her and we are devastated that her life was cut short in this manner.”

“We offer our deepest condolences to the Housley family and ask that our community join us in keeping Alaina’s family, friends, and loved ones in their prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” Pepperdine University added in a statement.

Marine Corps veteran Dan Manrique, died in the shooting, Jacklyn Pieper, athletic director for the Ventura County Chapter of Team Red White & Blue, told ABC News. Manrique was the chapter captain for the organization.

“My son was in Las Vegas with a lot of his friends and he came home,” Susan Orfanos said. “He didn’t come home last night, and I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts. I want gun control, and I hope to God nobody sends me anymore prayers. I want gun control. No more guns.”

Justin Meek, 23, also died, according to Thousand Oaks’ California Lutheran University, from which he had recently graduated.

“Meek heroically saved lives” during the massacre, the university said.

“Cal Lutheran wraps its arms around the Meek family and other families, and around every member of this community,” the university said.

Noel Sparks and Blake Dingman, both 21, were also victims of the shooting, ABC News confirmed.

The bar was packed when police responded to the country western bar in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, late Wednesday night.

Among those inside were six off-duty police officers, who reportedly “stood in front of my daughter” to protect her after the gunfire rang out, one parent told the sheriff.

Teylor Whittler was celebrating a friend’s birthday at the bar’s college night when she heard gunshots.

“A bunch of people dog-piled on top of each other,” she told “Good Morning America.” “Everyone just yelled, ‘Run, he’s coming!'”

“There were at least 50 people that all tried getting up at once and running out the back door. I ended up getting caught in the ground and stumbled over by multiple people,” Whittler said. “I got hit in the head by a stool that was being picked up to throw through a window, until some guy came up behind me and grabbed me and said, ‘Get up, we have to go!'”

Whittler’s friend, Sarah Rose DeSon, told “GMA” she was hiding behind a table when she saw a spark and smoke.

“As soon as we all saw that, we jumped up,” she said. “I ran out the front door, down some stairs, face-planted in the parking lot but I was lucky enough to get out alive.”

Thirteen people with gunshot wounds or lacerations were treated and released from local hospitals.

As the sun rose Thursday, women as young as 18 years old emerged from the area surrounding the bar. Many were dressed in cowboy boots and flannels and draped in pink blankets given to them by authorities.

They clung to each other, desperate to find missing friends.

Terrified parents also descended on the area. One mother was so frantic that she jumped out of the passenger side of a still-moving car to race toward the crime scene.

As parents waited outside, they “pinged” their children’s phones, some of which were left buzzing inside the bar.

“We’re just praying for our friends that we haven’t heard from,” DeSon told “GMA.” “You never think it’s going to be you until it happens. This is a problem. This is real and it’s awful.”

Thousand Oaks ranked third in America’s safest cities this year, according to Niche, a Pittsburgh-based company that researches neighborhoods and schools across the country based on public data as well as resident reviews.

Meanwhile, investigators are working to determine the suspect’s motive. There’s no apparent connection between Long and the Borderline Bar, the sheriff said.

Long served in the Marine Corps from 2008 to 2013. He served in Afghanistan from November 2010 to June 2011.

Long lived near Thousand Oaks in the town of Newbury Park. Neighbors told ABC News that he lived with his mother and rarely went outside.

There are no indicators of any additional associates or other threats to the Los Angeles area, Paul Delacourt, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Investigators are searching Long’s vehicle and his home to “paint a picture on the frame of mind on the subject.”

This April deputies were called to his home for a report of “subject disturbing” and found Long “somewhat irate,” said Dean.

Mental health specialists met with him, Dean said; however, they “didn’t feel that he was qualified” for involuntary psychiatric commitment.

President Donald Trump has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Saturday at sunset “as a mark of solemn respect for the victims,” he said in a proclamation.